“DOE believes that it is vital for SRR to manage the waste in these tanks, not only for the local community but for the nation,” DOE Savannah River Manager Dr. David Moody said. “SRR has been achieving the mission and is reducing the risk for both present and future communities.”

“The employees at SRR prove year after year that they are the best in the world at what they do,” he said. “They not only get the work done on schedule, they get it done safely.”

Tanks 5 and 6 supported F Canyon activities at SRS from the late 1950s to the early 1970s, when waste removal activities in the tanks began. Tank 5 held 730,000 gallons of waste and Tank 6 stored about 732,000 gallons.

To move toward tank closure, sludge in the tanks must also be safely removed from the tanks. The Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF), which treats the sludge, has produced over 3,700 canisters of molten glass encasing the sludge since starting operations in 1996. The canisters are 10 feet tall and 2 feet in diameter. In 2012, DWPF set a new record, producing 275 canisters in one fiscal year. DWPF employees also set a record for canister production in August 2013 by producing 40 canisters, exceeding the previous total of 37 canisters produced in December 2011.